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DFMA®
Design For Manufacture and Assembly

COST REDUCTION THROUGH IMPROVED DESIGN
During the development stages of a new product, cost and cost drivers certainly deserve careful consideration. Yet they tend to be neglected, especially when designers lack a reliable method of managing and understanding them.

If your goal is to improve your products without increasing your costs, the lack of cost detail during design can really hold you back. Design teams often find themselves relying on historical manufacturing and assembly costs recorded for previous or similar versions of a product, for example, or on supplier best estimates. Usually, designers have no way of accurately quantifying whether the specific innovation they are contemplating will increase or reduce overall product cost.

The Design for Manufacture and Assembly suite of software gives you tools you can use anytime during the product development cycle to analyze and understand the cost effects of your design decisions. From the earliest conceptual stages of design, DFMA software equips you with quick and accurate cost information. The software also provides a way to work creatively and objectively with your suppliers to find new avenues for improving design efficiency and profitability.

The three phases of improving product designs while reducing costs:

  • Product simplification
  • Should-costing
  • Supplier bid verification

COST REDUCTION THROUGH PRODUCT SIMPLIFICATION:
During the early stages of design, control of part count is paramount to maintaining cost targets. Design for Assembly (DFA) software tools help you simplify products by focusing the attention of design teams on part count and part count reduction. Product simplification is achieved through the application of our industry-tested minimum part count criteria. The analysis allows you to determine the theoretical minimum number of parts that must be in the design for the product to function as required. When you identify and eliminate unnecessary parts, you eliminate unnecessary manufacturing and assembly costs.

Suppliers are a rich source of feedback during product simplification, particularly if one of your options is to consolidate multiple parts into one part with multiple features. As a design matures, DFA tools help avoid part proliferation and ensure that costs do not creep back into the product.

PRODUCT OPTIMIZATION THROUGH SHOULD-COSTING:
The potential for cost reduction continues when you select the optimal material and manufacturing process for each part in your design. Using Design for Manufacture (DFM) software tools, you achieve a thorough understanding of the primary cost drivers associated with manufacturing your product – and establish a benchmark for what your product "should cost." Central to the should-costing approach is accumulating real information about manufacturing costs and noting where specific costs arise in your design. Large costs in product development are associated with design manufacturability, so sharing should-costing information with suppliers can make your collaboration more fruitful.

The cost models in DFM Concurrent Costing software guide you through an assessment of alternative processes and materials and provide cost information for the bill of material. Costs update automatically as you determine tolerances, surface finishes, and other part details. Gradually, as you choose effective shape-forming processes and consider how to modify part features to lower cost, your product becomes more optimized.

SUPPLIER BID VERIFICATION:
Once your design is complete and it's time for purchasing to work with suppliers, the should-cost approach of DFM Concurrent Costing becomes invaluable. The design team can turn over to purchasing a costed bill of material that has true science behind it. Each part description can include a breakdown identifying what the setup, material, process, and tooling costs should be. The purchasing engineer and the supplier can then begin to facilitate discussions about predicted cycle times and costs, rather than get bogged down in arguments over margins and profits.

Software Products 

DFMA software is a combination of two complementary tools: Design for Assembly (DFA) and Design for Manufacture (DFM). DFA software is used to reduce the complexity of a product by consolidating parts into elegant and multifunctional designs. DFM software then allows the design engineer to quickly judge the cost of producing the new design and to compare it with the cost of producing the original design.

The early and accurate cost understanding provided by DFMA software allows you to proactively manage product cost while the product is still under development. To find out more, click on one of the two areas below:

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